To confess more, I believe that evolution of our species has reached the point where natural selection can be replaced by conscious choices. In fact, natural selection already retired, and avalanche of knowledge provided by science begins to enable us to change according to will (and, probably, fashion). As we know more and more about the machines that are our bodies we're increasingly able to deal with biological limitations - injuries, health problems, aging, to name just a few. And then... we're close to overcoming limits imposed by biology - upgrade our sensorium, intelligence, memory, strength, etc. We can elevate ourselves to the next level, whatever it might be - we can speculate and discuss, but we won't know until we get there. New possibilities and new horizons are opening and it is up to us to explore them, to fulfill our potential and look for our destiny. Because...
...and it means we're explorers, adventurers, thinkers, creators, and we are free to discover wonders of the breathtaking universe we live in, wonders that no mythology can match. We can go to the shoulder of Orion, we can visit the Tannhäuser Gate, we will invent appropriate technology to fly there one day. We are human and we can do it. Also, how about seeing gamma rays, hearing X-rays, smelling dark matter? One day it can be done too, and without resigning from still calling ourselves human.
Brother Cavil was wrong. "I don't want to be human", said he, as if being human was determined purely by what limits we happen to inherit from our organic past. It's illogical though - growing wings will not make me any more human than loosing a leg would make me any less. Human is what we are inside and it does not depend on shape, color, weight, age - culture, language, religion... Evolving beyond organic will not make us, somehow, a different species. Au contraire, it is refusing to grow, evolve and change that is denying our human spirit. We will not lose our right to call ourselves humans even after we finally merge with technology, which is already happening to some degree and which seems inevitable. We will continue being spiritual machines, as we are now, but... better. Expanded. Evolved. Still human though, even if we decide to abandon corporeal presence. It might even be that what I now call "human" is what should be simply called "sapient", and then it wouldn't even matter how its mind appeared here. Born? Constructed? Grown? Conjured? What really matters is the degree to which said unit of consciousness is able to perceive, understand and act in the world, look at it with curiosity and awe, with love and respect, without fear and prejudice.
No so long ago futurists promised flying cars, ending poverty, more leisure and happiness for all. Somehow it failed to materialize. Although it is true that for many people standard of living improved significantly comparing to for example middle ages, for many people it did not. Wars are still present along with poverty, hunger, destruction of environment, suffering. By now we should be free, all of us, from low level existential problems like food and shelter, and yet... here we are. This isn't what was promised.
Long time ago I thought it is a simple matter of civilizational progress, loosely defined as "we're going in the right direction, but it will take some time to get there". Not sure how much time exactly, but the direction is good, and problems of humanity are technical, there are solutions out there, and we're implementing them, because.. we're human. And that's what we do, we make our lives better. Unfortunately, I woke up, and it's not been possible to fall asleep ever again. The good thing is that taking the red pill does not make dreams go away, but it makes them more... realistic. Only by seeing the world for what it is I can imagine how it can be made better, instead of fantasizing that it is ok now.
PS Minor detail, the rat - well, rats are intelligent and generally awesome. This one is not quite Stainless Steel, more of a... plush variety. The name is Maciuś. This is me, here.
